Wednesday, September 24, 2008

SKR Neustrashimyy Departs Baltic on Deployment

The guard ship (SKR) Neustrashimyy departed the main naval base in the Baltic, Baltiysk on 24 September for a deployment.

The crew of the guard ship Neustrashimyy, under the command of K2R Aleksey Apanovich will carry out practice combat missions far from home waters.

K1R Oleg Gurinov was named deployment commander by the Squadron.

During the deployment the crew of the Neustrashimyy will train on a whole range of combat tasks, including: general quarters drills, search and destroy drills against a notional enemy, damage control training and anti-air training. There will be crew training on the reliability of the machinery and weapons and an accumulation of experience by commanders at all levels on decision making in complicated and unforseen circumstances.

The Zvezda TV clip notes that the Neustrashimyy just returned from large scale Baltic Fleet exercises in which 20 ships, 2 submarines, 15 planes and other shore based elements participated. The report further notes that the Neustrashimyy is capable of missions "in the littoral zone as well as in distant areas of the world ocean". The Neustrashimyy is armed with the latest missile and artillery weapons and has won fleet competitions and has participated in exercises with NATO vessels during Baltops. The captain of the Neustrashimyy was noted as belonging to a noted Naval family.

Yesterday I speculated about the Peter the Great and the Admiral Chabanenko participating in anti-piracy ops in the Horn of Africa.

Today I will irresponsibly speculate that I think it is much more likely that it is the Neustrashimyy that will participate given that logically, it is akin to using a sledgehammer as a flyswatter for the Peter the Great to participate in anti-piracy ops, although that kind of suits the Russian's style, doesn't it?

The Neustrashimyy as an anti-piracy vessel makes much more sense to me.

As for K2R Apanovich and his distinguished naval family, I found this at warfare.ru:

["Apanovich was born in the Grozno region in Belarus in 1951. He graduated from the Kaliningrad Higher Naval College in 1976, Navy's Higher Officer Classes in 1984 and Navy Academy in 1989. Ananovich occupied various posts in the Baltic Fleet, starting from air defence missile battery commander at the Obraztsovy large anti-submarine ship, chief officer at the Silny and Neukrotimy guard ships, Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsiya cruisers. Later he became commander of the Silny guard ship, then deputy commander of a landing ship brigade. Following that he was promoted to brigade commander and then chief-of-staff of a surface vessels division. Prior to his current appointment, Ananovich commanded the Baltiysk naval base" (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey 17 May 01).]